No unregarded star
Contracts its light

Into so small a character,

Removed far from our human sight,

But if we steadfast look,

We shall discern

In it as in some holy book,

How man may heavenly knowledge learn.

It tells the Conqueror,
That far-stretch'd power

Which his proud dangers traffic for,
Is but the triumph of an hour.

That from the farthest North
Some nation may

Yet undiscover'd issue forth,
And o'er his new-got conquest sway.
Some nation yet shut in
With hills of ice,

May be let out to scourge his sin,
Till they shall equal him in vice.

And then they likewise shall
Their ruin have;

For as yourselves your Empires fall,
And every Kingdom hath a grave.

Thus those celestial fires,
Though seeming mute,

The fallacy of our desires

And all the pride of life, confutc.

For they have watch'd since first
The World had birth:

And found sin in itself accursed,
And nothing permanent on earth.

IV. Habington

CXLIX

HYMN TO DARKNESS

Hail thou most sacred venerable thing!
What Muse is worthy thee to sing?
Thee, from whose pregnant universal womb
All things, ev'n Light, thy rival, first did come.
What dares he not attempt that sings of thee,
Thou first and greatest mystery?

Who can the secrets of thy essence tell?
Thou, like the light of God, art inaccessible.

Before great Love this monument did raise,
This ample theatre of praise;
Before the folding circles of the sky
Were tuned by Him, Who is all harmony;
Before the morning Stars their hymn began,
Before the council held for man,

Before the birth of either time or place,

Thou reign'st unquestion'd monarch in the empty

space.

Thy native lot thou didst to Light resign,
But still half of the globe is thine.
Here with a quiet, but yet awful hand,
Like the best emperors thou dost command.
To thee the stars above their brightness owe,
And mortals their repose below:

To thy protection fear and sorrow flee,

And those that weary are of light, find rest in thee.

J. Norris of Bemerton

CL

A VISION

I saw Eternity the other night,

Like a great ring of pure and endless light,
All calm, as it was bright :-

And round beneath it, Time, in hours, days, years,
Driven by the spheres,

Like a vast shadow moved; in which the World

And all her train were hurl'd.

H. Vaughan

CLI

ALEXANDER'S FEAST, OR, THE POWER OF MUSIC

'Twas at the royal feast for Persia won

By Philip's warlike son

Aloft in awful state

The godlike hero sate

On his imperial throne;

His valiant peers were placed around,

Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound,

(So should desert in arms be crown'd);

The lovely Thais by his side

Sate like a blooming Eastern bride

In flower of youth and beauty's pride :

Happy, happy, happy pair!

None but the brave

None but the brave

None but the brave deserves the fair!

Timotheus placed on high

Amid the tuneful quire

With flying fingers touch'd the lyre:

The trembling notes ascend the sky

And heavenly joys inspire.

The song began from Jove

Who left his blissful seats above

K

Such is the power of mighty love!
A dragon's fiery form belied the god;
Sublime on radiant spires he rode
When he to fair Olympia prest,

And while he sought her snowy breast,
Then round her slender waist he curl'd,

And stamp'd an image of himself, a sovereign of the

world.

-The listening crowd admire the lofty sound;

A present deity! they shout around:

A present deity! the vaulted roofs rebound:
With ravish'd ears

The monarch hears,

Assumes the god;

Affects to nod

And seems to shake the spheres.

The praise of Bacchus then the sweet musician

sung,

Of Bacchus ever fair and ever young :

The jolly god in triumph comes;
Sound the trumpets, beat the drums!

Flush'd with a purple grace

He shows his honest face:

Now give the hautboys breath; he comes, he comes! Bacchus, ever fair and young,

Drinking joys did first ordain;

Bacchus blessings are a treasure,

Drinking is the soldier's pleasure :

Rich the treasure,

Sweet the pleasure,

Sweet is pleasure after pain.

Soothed with the sound, the king grew vain ;

"Fought all his battles o'er again,

And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew

the slain !

The master saw the madness rise,

His glowing cheeks, his ardent eyes;
And while he Heaven and Earth defied
Changed his hand and check'd his pride.
He chose a mournful Muse

Soft pity to infuse :

He sung Darius great and good,
By too severe a fate

Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,
Fallen from his high estate,
And weltering in his blood;
Deserted at his utmost need
By those his former bounty fed;
On the bare earth exposed he lies
With not a friend to close his eyes.

-With downcast looks the joyless victor sate,
Revolving in his alter'd soul

The various turns of Chance below;
And now and then a sigh he stole,
And tears began to flow.

The mighty master smiled to see
That love was in the next degree;
'Twas but a kindred-sound to move,
For pity melts the mind to love.
Softly sweet, in Lydian measures
Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures.
War, he sung, is toil and trouble,
Honour but an empty bubble;
Never ending, still beginning,
Fighting still, and still destroying ;
If the world be worth thy winning,
Think, O think, it worth enjoying:
Lovely Thais sits beside thee,

Take the good the gods provide thee!

-The many rend the skies with loud applause: So Love was crown'd, but Music won the cause. The prince, unable to conceal his pain,

Gazed on the fair

Who caused his care,

And sigh'd and look'd, sigh'd and look'd,
Sigh'd and look'd, and sigh'd again :

At length with love and wine at once opprest
The vanquish'd victor sunk upon her breast.
Now strike the golden lyre again:

A louder yet, and yet a louder strain !
Break his bands of sleep asunder

And rouse him like a rattling peal of thunder.